Artist : Jonathan Michael Ray (b. 1984)
Title : The Widow’s Gift 
Medium : stained glass fragments and lead in LED backlit frame
Dimensions : 56.5 x 43.5 cm



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Jonathan Michael Ray’s ‘mono no aware’ artworks examine the multilayered histories, fictions and beliefs assigned to artefacts, materials and the places he encounters. A practice comprising of stained glass, photography, sculpture, print, drawing, video and installation, much of his work is deeply connected to his surroundings. He regularly uses found objects and images imbued with their own histories, as well as material direct from the landscape, appropriating their symbolism while creating a new context and meaning. By layering and combining material, he is interested in looking beyond the surface of a purely physical existence and breaking down the institutions by which we are taught to see and experience the world. His work alludes to the sublime power that inanimate material and objects can contain when we give them space, time and authority to do so. 

Jonathan Michael Ray was born in High Wycombe, UK and has been based in West Cornwall since 2018. He studied at Nottingham Trent in 2007 and at Slade School of Fine Art in 2016. In 2022 Ray’s work was the subject of a two person exhibition alongside Willeminha Barnes Graham at Tate St Ives. In 2023, following his solo exhibition “Long Way Home” at Anima Mundi, Ray was commissioned to produce a new sculpture for Tremenheere Sculpture Garden, which the garden has since acquired. Ray’s sculpture ‘Dark Lith’ is on a long term display at The New Art Centre, Roche Court. In addition he co-curated “Ud Rocashaas”, a group exhibition at Hweg Gallery, Penzance.